Phoenix Flames of Red and Blue
by BitterSweetTeller
Summary: What if things ended up very different for Mystique? A alternate take for the Dark Phoenix movie. Rated Teen for at least some action, suggestive content, and some very dark moments.


Phoenix Flames of Blue and Red

A X-Men Movie Oneshot Fanfiction Story

Side Notes: If you haven't seen or read about the movie Dark Phoenix, please do before reading this fanfiction. It'll make more sense this way, since this is a alternate take on that movie. For reading about Dark Phoenix, the main wiki alone can be good enough.

The X-Men are in the middle of confronting Jean Grey.

Jean Grey mutters, "you lied to me Scott. About everything."

She's teary eyed. And, the anger in her voice only makes worse the crackling flames growing in her eyes.

Raven whispers something to Charles Xavier.

Meanwhile, Scott Summers is trying to talk Jean Grey down.

He tries to assure her, "I...I didn't know about any of this. But, we'll figure it out. Just come back to me. Remember? You said you'd always come back to me."

Scott is trying hard to stay calm.

He knows Jean well enough without telepathy to know from a educated guess what Charles Xavier must have telepathically blocked from her memory. And, it hurts.

Scott even clenches his fists some.

But... He just as quickly lets out a nervous sigh.

In that instant... Jean couldn't help but briefly very faintly smile.

She could sense Scott's own anger at Charles Xavier building...and then pushed back within Scott himself like a self inflicted memory block.

But, aside from Charles Xavier... That doesn't help much for the other X-Men's tense nerves.

Then... Some police cars come down the street.

The sirens are whirling.

Jean reactively closes her eyes and cups her hands over the sides of her head.

Scott pleads, "Jean..."

Jean somberly murmurs, "Scott? I...I tried to..."

A sliver of flame appears over her forehead.

Scott starts to rush toward her side.

But... Jean suddenly whirls back to the whirling police sirens.

Flashes in her head go by: Of the car crash that killed her mother, the police sirens that were soon there...and of the intense questions at her in the police car while her father was in critical condition and taken away in a ambulance.

At the time, she was young and mentally tired from the burst of telepathic power.

She couldn't even understand what it was.

But now... Presently... Jean understands a lot all too well.

Her father, fearing for his life, already managed to dial 911 before Jean could barge in and confront him.

Jean cries out, "stay away: Stay away from me!"

She puts out her arm.

And... All the police cars flip over.

Glass shatters.

Jean waves both her arms out.

Police officers are telekinetically thrown out of the cars and into the air.

Some violent screams.

Some flashes of dark red liquid fly.

Scott stops a few feet away from Jean.

He doesn't want to be caught up in her telepathic attacks.

But... A tear falls from under Scott's visor.

Charles Xavier calls out, "Kurt, Ororo, quickly!"

Kurt Wagner and Ororo Munroe don't even have to ask what.

As Nightcrawler and Storm... They hurry to save the police officers.

Nightcrawler is quick with his teleporting to save several of them.

Storm creates some gusts of wind to cushion the fall of some of the police officers.

She also lightning blasts off some of the police car doors to free some of the injured police officers from the cars.

Raven calls out, "Peter, no!"

She reaches out toward Peter Maximoff at the same time.

But... Peter Maximoff isn't listening.

He's run charging for Jean.

Meanwhile, Xavier has his eyes closed.

He's still trying to telepathically reach Jean.

Even so... He warns, "I'm sorry Hank. But, me and Raven have a better idea to work this out. Don't take that shot!"

His voice raises a little on that last part.

Hank McCoy is holding a specialized gun he made: Likely to suppress the X-Gene...and maybe the Phoenix force within at the same time.

As Beast... Hank McCoy takes a heavy breath.

He nearly shouts at Charles Xavier.

But... He's already calmed down considerably in the middle of Charles Xavier's warning to him.

Beast just says, "I hope you're right. We won't get another if this keeps going on like this."

Time freezes around Quicksilver.

But, as the Dark Phoenix... Jean is too easily faster.

She sets a whole corner of house on fire just by glaring at it.

And, with a wave of her arm... She launches all the pieces at Quicksilver.

Quicksilver jump runs from piece to piece.

But, just as quickly... More and more of them burst further into flames.

Quicksilver gasps in sudden realization.

Dark Phoenix cries out, "I told all of you to stay away! But, you're too quick to defend Charles and your father!"

She sniffles hard.

Tears fall and burn away from her face.

Several slivers of flame are around her all over.

And, all in that instant... She telekinetically sends Quicksilver crash flying from house to house.

Quicksilver groans violently as he clutches his heavily bruised side.

Then... For a brief moment... Jean looks puzzled.

Time itself has seemed to freeze. Even for Scott, Nightcrawler, and Storm.

Jean sees Raven slowly walking toward her.

Raven calls out, "I know! I know you are hurting. Hard sniffle. Very faint laugh. You...you don't even want to know how I was raised and born. It's much worse than this."

She's teary eyed.

Jean somberly murmurs, "I told you to stay away from me. If you really cared for me..."

Raven highlights, "but we do. Look. I... Hard sniffle. Charles sent me his thoughts: All of them. All of them so that I could for sure know if he's lying about this without question...and so can you. We're more than crusaders: We are and have been X-Men. Mutant and proud and hopeful for a better world now. I know how to tell when he has a mind game, and this isn't one of them. Please. Go ahead and be angry. I am too. But, right now...I care about you getting to live your own life more. I...I'm not really one to talk to about holding back. But... Hard sniffle. Look at me. You can hear my thoughts. Do you understand how much I want to help you but can't figure out how to fully tell you out loud?"

Jean looks wide eyed.

Some tears fall from both of their faces.

Jean can sense Raven's thoughts:

_**There's a better way. Let me take care of you.**_

_**We don't have to go back to the Institute. Neither of us.**_

_**We can make our own home, our own Genosha...our own team of mutants.**_

_**We can call it a sisterhood, a brotherhood...whatever you want.**_

_**I don't even want to run it. I'd rather retire now.**_

_**But, together...we can let out our anger better.**_

_**Angry, happy, and proud.**_

Faint dark smiles form on Jean's and Raven's faces.

And, unfortunately... Charles Xavier can sense what's about to happen.

* * *

Time mentally resumes.

And, as Dark Phoenix and Mystique... Jean and Raven are now both telekinetically flying to each other in the air.

Charles Xavier calls out, "everyone get down! Now!"

He sounds very worried.

Tears are falling from his face.

But, right now...that's not important.

He mentally struggles to force Beast and Scott back.

He still mentally freezes them in place...keeping them from fully charging after Mystique and Jean.

Beast and Scott both go down from the sudden halt in momentum.

But, aside from the mental freezing in place...they're both just stunned.

Storm and Nightcrawler get down.

Charles Xavier ducks best he can from his wheelchair.

Mystique puts a comforting hand on Jean's in midair.

And... Jean glares down at the police cars and the road below.

They all burst into flaming telekinetically flying pieces.

A cloud of smoke.

And, as the smoke clears... Jean and Mystique are telekinetically flying high and away.

Beast and Scott come to.

And... They both angrily charge at Charles Xavier.

Storm and Nightcrawler struggle to hold Beast and Scott back.

Almost at the same time... Storm and Nightcrawler say, "look. You're clearly angry. But, this isn't..."

Beast angrily roars.

He tosses Storm off.

Storm coughs violently some on the ground.

Beast shouts at Charles Xavier, "we had one shot! We had one shot...and now Jean has corrupted Mystique! You coward!"

Scott shrugs off Nightcrawler some.

But... Nightcrawler just teleports in front of him.

Scott mutters harshly, "you weren't here! You didn't see what he let happen! You didn't...!"

Then... Scott breaks down crying.

There's a long silence.

Even after the ambulances come and go... There's a long silence.

Then... Charles Xavier finally speaks, "I...I didn't know Raven wou... Hard sniffle. She was going to retire. The last thing I thought would be...would be..."

He sobs.

Beast finally calms down a little.

He's heavily breathing a little less.

Scott murmurs, "I could have saved her. But, you wouldn't even let me finish trying! Where's your leadership now, Professor? Where's our team now?!"

Charles Xavier considers, "well then...why don't you lead? Hard sniffle. You're right. You're absolutely right...about everything. Hard sniffle. Hank, take care of them. I...I can't do this anymore. Hard sniffle. If you still want me to track with Cerebro, you know where I'll be. Hard sniffle. But...but, that's as far as I go now."

And, with that... He wheels away on his wheelchair.

Away from the shaken team.

Storm and Nightcrawler look like they're about to cry.

Scott deeply sighs.

He looks down.

After who knows how long... He looks up.

As Cyclops... Scott says, "okay. I...I'll try my hardest to save everyone. But, I can't do it alone. Neither of us can. I think we can still get through to Jean. But, Mystique... Hard sniffle. She lead Jean to keep embracing the dark force in her. Hank...you can have your shot to deal with Mystique. I'll make sure of it."

Beast gives him a faint dark grin.

And... He asks, "so...what is the plan now, Cyclops?"

Cyclops very faintly smiles.

He figures, "we go from the nearest bar to the next, and then the next. I go in alone. But, everyone stands by outside each time. I know Jean: She'll turn up. We find Jean, we find Mystique."

Beast is soon carrying the injured Quicksilver into the Quinjet.

Everyone else is more quickly following Cyclops into the Quinjet.

Everyone...except Charles Xavier.

* * *

Over the course of many hours...

Charles Xavier, through Cerebro, informs Erik Lensherr about everything he knows.

He had hoped Erik would help him stop Mystique and Dark Phoenix.

But, with everything... Erik was quick to anger over Charles "treating Jean no differently than how Sebastian Shaw treated him" and "holding back what she was meant to be all along".

At the same time... Erik had found peace with his island nation of Genosha.

The last thing he wanted now was vengeance.

But... Erik deep down knew something:

**You're right about one thing, Charles.**

**Jean could be too powerful to live on Genosha.**

**Soon, she could get angry and kill us all.**

**That doesn't mean I'm not going to try to get her over to my side in the coming war. She deserves a chance to prove herself as stronger than you think to Genosha, Charles.**

**Raven being by her side willingly? That speaks more to me than any speech you can give me now telling me to not do this, Charles.**

**The D'Bari and other beings like them just waiting to play their hands to attack us? We need all the power we can to protect humans and mutants from them, and I don't plan to let Genosha be at any of their mercy.**

**Still...**

**If she kills one of our own people... Any of our own people...**

**The girl dies.**

As Magneto... Erik Lensherr gathers up some of his best mutants from Genosha to go after Mystique and Dark Phoenix...including Selene.

Charles Xavier telepathically warns the X-Men Magneto is going after them. But...he also warns them of the same forces at work he warned Magneto about: The Phoenix Force, and the D'Bari trying to use Jean for their own gains.

Mystique and Dark Phoenix did indeed go to a bar to try to enjoy themselves and let loose a little.

Plenty of stories of Mystique's very long past to tell spanning centuries. Plenty of drinks to drink.

Dark Phoenix faintly chuckles at Mystique's early days of killing to defend herself. So does Mystique.

Still, even back then... Mystique had a few friends along the way she'd give her life to protect.

And, they weren't all mutants either.

Late that night... Dark Phoenix and Mystique were joined by Vuk.

She didn't even have to try hard to convince them to seriously consider letting her join their side too.

Magneto, with help from Selene, tracks the X-Men as well as Jean and Mystique.

That very same night... There's a big fight between Magneto's and Cyclops's teams outside the bar.

Vuk leads Dark Phoenix and Mystique to her base of operations to tell her whole story...aside from her true intentions.

The X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants come charging in into the base from opposite sides...fighting each other again over Dark Phoenix and Mystique.

In the midst of the fighting... Cyclops and Magneto make it up to Dark Phoenix and Mystique.

Mystique shapeshifts into posing as Dark Phoenix to add to the chaos.

Cyclops calls out Jean's name.

But... Selene kind of easily slashes Cyclops with whirling knives.

Cyclops doubles over some from the critical wounds.

He coughs violently.

Soon, Selene is tackling him down.

She's about to psychically attack Cyclops's very life force.

But... Dark Phoenix cries out to get away from him.

She telekinetically violently hurls Selene off of Cyclops.

Selene goes right through a pillar and out the back.

Selene dies the instant she lands.

A trail of dark red liquid is out the back as well.

Meanwhile, Mystique tries to talk down Magneto with a outstretched hand.

She tells him Dark Phoenix is very close to going over to both of their cause now: Being more violent to ensure mutantkind survives.

She even shows off a blue palm to signal to Magneto who she really is and only to him.

But... Vuk also knows which Dark Phoenix is really Mystique.

And... Vuk angrily telekinetically sends Mystique flying into Magneto.

They both crash violently into each other and through the window.

Glass shatters.

Magneto reactively shields Mystique with his body as they fly out.

But, even for Magneto... The fall is painful.

Magneto violently groans on the ground by Mystique.

Magneto and Mystique barely get up.

They're close to kissing.

But, in Magneto's physically weakened state and in his brief distraction... Vuk sneak attacks.

She telekinetically crushes Magneto's own helmet into him to instantly kill him.

Mystique furiously attacks Vuk outside.

And, as soon as that happens... Dark Phoenix gives way to Jean's personality.

Dark Phoenix has been telekinetically sealing back up Cyclops's wounds the whole time.

Some tears fall then and then.

And... Remorse has fully hit Jean.

She's about to say something to Cyclops.

But, soon... Everyone is taken into custody by a Mutant Control Unit.

Everyone except Vuk: Because she makes the illusion that she isn't there to get away.

After that... Along with the X-Men... Mystique and Jean wake up on the train Mutant Control put them on.

Mystique and Jean have mutant gene inhibitor collars as well.

Mystique and Jean apologize for letting their anger cloud them too much to see Vuk's betrayal coming...and how wrong they were to give in to Magneto's way of thinking so quickly that it nearly wiped out all the big mutants in town along with themselves.

Cyclops reveals to them about Charles Xavier retiring from being a hero.

Mystique finally admits out loud she loves Hank McCoy.

There's a lot of tears.

But... All the X-Men are back together and somewhat okay then.

The D'Bari infiltrate the train and take out the soldiers around the X-Men.

The inhibitor collars are next in line to go.

There's the final confrontation on the train with Mystique and Vuk.

Cyclops orders everyone else to focus on the other D'Bari.

Himself, Nightcrawler, Beast, and Storm get right on that.

Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants kind of quickly follow suit, knowing it's the only best way to survive against the D'Bari themselves.

The D'Bari are kind of all quickly taken out: All except Vuk.

Meanwhile, Mystique and Vuk are evenly matched blow for blow on top of the train.

Mystique's centuries of experience keep her a slight step ahead of her telekinetic blasts and kicks.

But, then... Vuk telekinetically crumples some of the train under Mystique's feet.

Mystique almost falls to her death.

But... Beast catches her in time.

He starts to climb back up onto the train.

But... Vuk steps on Beast's hand.

She then telekinetically starts to violently hurl both Beast and Mystique off into the tracks below.

But... Cyclops blasts her with a optic ray from a open train window.

Vuk groans violently some from the blast.

But... She telekinetically rips apart that section of the train to send Cyclops violently flying down the speeding by side of the tracks.

At the same time though... Jean makes her move.

As the Phoenix... Jean makes telekinetic bubbles around Beast, Mystique, Cyclops, and everyone else back on the train.

Then... The Phoenix telekinetically tears the whole train, Vuk, and any still living D'Bari apart in super fast burning ash.

Vuk tries to absorb The Phoenix Force away from Jean.

But, with a technique Mystique recently taught her... Jean flip hurls Vuk off.

Jean telekinetically hurls Vuk further and further...out into space to die.

Jean is very tempted to turn into a burning phoenix and go out into space: Even if just to make sure Vuk isn't making a illusion over her death.

But, with the telekinetic bubbles gone now... Mystique goes over to Jean's side.

She hugs Jean close.

And... She assures her that it doesn't have to be the end.

Jean and Scott kiss.

They say a tearful goodbye.

But... Jean assures Scott it doesn't have to be the end.

* * *

And, before anyone else can go and thank Jean... Jean flies off into the cosmos.

She turns into a flaming phoenix...faintly chuckling along the way.

The stars are bright out now.

Just before Jean leaves for the cosmos...

Mystique told Jean:

_**It's all right.**_

_**If you want to explore the galaxy and help protect more people...I am very thankful you'll be carrying a legacy I can be proud of.**_

_**If you want to stay and help protect people, that's something to be proud of in itself.**_

_**Just be sure it's what you want.**_

_**And, even if you go...**_

_**Hard sniffle.**_

_**I'm really going to miss you.**_

_**But... But, I'll probably still be alive when you come back.**_

_**No matter what happens.**_

_**And don't forget.**_

_**I'll always be proud of you. I know that now.**_

_**I'll always be proud of today.**_

_**I'll always in the end be grateful to have you as a close friend.**_

* * *

Soon...

It wasn't long after Jean left that Charles Xavier admitted to the X-Men that he was wrong to lie to Jean about her past and block it from her.

The Institute has become the Jean and Raven School for Gifted Youngsters.

Scott is still teary eyed.

So are the X-Men and Charles Xavier.

But...they all know it'll be okay now.

Genosha has even let Storm become their new leader in the wake of Magneto's death.

Soon, Wakanda won't be the only super advanced secret nation in Africa: Storm will be moving Genosha next door to them.

There is of course a funeral on Genosha for Magneto.

It is raining hard that day. But, the trees and blocks of red to light yellow caboose like homes stand tall against the rainfall.

Most of the X-Men, Charles Xavier, and all of Genosha came to mourn. They had plenty of black umbrellas and coats.

Glued back together parts of Magneto's helmet stood over his stone carved tombstone.

This was carved on his tombstone:

_May you finally find the peace you seek, my old friend. May Genosha help bring peace for all mutants in your name._

_-Professor Charles Xavier_

The scene cuts away past the storm clouds...and up into the clear blue atmosphere above.

And... Jean Grey reflects:

_I know who I am now._

_I am not simply what others want me to be._

_I am not any more destined to a fate I can't control._

_I have evolved beyond this world._

_But, this is not the end of me or the X-Men._

_It's a new beginning._

_I miss her and Scott even now._

_But, deep past the anger and hate... I know now Charles only had good intentions._

_I can read his mind just as easily now as he has read my mind before when we went up against Apocalypse._

_And yes: I'm already thinking I'll miss him too._

_It really is a new beginning._

_One that me and Raven and Scott can be proud of...always._

* * *

Years later...

The school is filled with mutant youngsters: From lessons in the classrooms to not so PC conversations down the halls.

There are new mutant teachers. But, some things never change.

Cyclops becomes the new head of the school.

Hank took up the mantle for three years alongside Raven. But, Raven was still comfortable with pretty much retiring from being a hero.

They even still talk a lot with Charles Xavier.

But... Now Charles Xavier, Raven, and Hank are on Genosha: Living well there across the way from Storm.

Hank has risen to become a diplomat for Genosha and still finds time to be a scientist.

Charles Xavier has even taught Hank how to be a better Chess player so they could be more evenly matched in Chess against each other.

And, at least a few times a year...

Jean as the Phoenix has kept flying over to Mystique and Scott to catch up for lost time.

Scott's friends, mutant and human, think he's crazy for being in a relationship with the Phoenix.

But... Scott doesn't care what they think:

He wouldn't change a thing.

And, in flames of The Phoenix within Jean Grey... Sadness and anger just seems to blur away into the cosmos.

**The End…Or The Start of Spin Off Fanfiction?**

**Please Feel Free To Comment On Or Continue This Storyline**


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